The Mistake Every afternoonin the shadow of the Acropolisnew sculpture somehow comes to life,groups of men and womenbusily clay their handsthen after a week they line results along the pedestrian zone. Each has a curious title: people walk from one to the nextlooking, assessing,they have no choice reallythese objects are unavoidablethey weigh them up then […]

Intimate Conversation after Richard Jones   We speak in low voices   leaning in to each other–   my breath touching you   softly   on your cheek,   your breath touching me.       Just Music   I usually prefer songs without lyrics–   just music,   extending her hand without a word, […]

Membership It’s weird to be a member of an invasive species,accumulating sky miles and slurping Starbucks.Weird to be within my skin, yet partof a horde, colony, swarm in searchof sugar, creating commerce as it goes.My activewear unspools its filaments,fills the mouths of salmon, remainsin their guts like undigested worms.I dream of generations pouring outof my […]

An Independent Melody her heels click upon the pavement      striking discordant notes   as she moves over      cobbles and flagstones   interrupting the song of      the morning rush hour   hammering out a tune      that is all her own   Bio Sammi Cox lives in the UK […]

crossing the 72nd street foot bridge the chinese womenwalk slowlyin front of me laughing as they read sex graffititiptoeing over broken bottles as i daydream vodka and wineand the tenants of independent wealth they twirl their blue and yellowIKEA umbrellas like cabaret stars but then quietly pass the manwho’s always drinking his beerout of a can […]

After Three Years of Marriage I fear with you:Grinding sounds from the future;sloshing from the past.I fear with youthat you might yawn,that your attention might turn toward a laugh.I fear with you,and you fear with me,that I might like a hill better,or a pool.We hold hands,in love,walking rapidly.   BioDavid Flynn’s literary publications total more […]

Deer in the Graveyard at 16th Street Two creatures fly silent between the still stones;heads back, eyes wide, hooves touching down madly, surely,swifter than the wind or death, who hunts them,tail twitching, nose to the earth.    Bio Kathryn Atwood is the author of four young adult collective biographies for the Chicago Review Press. Her poetry has […]

Scrambled Eggs I thought today of scrambled eggs,of cooking them on the right amount of heatI thought today of that white skillet — so hard to see —with the oil soaking them subtly. I thought today of salt and pepper, a hail of seasoning, making a Ben Day painting of my eggs, one of texture […]

Commonplace Beyond the welcome matThe north living room wallIs a charred memory Through its spacious showOf eviscerated lumberStill whip-cracking the years For Las Vegas parentsWho relax on the couchNext to the blistered wood Honoring birthdays orCelebrating school sportsWith commemorated smoke Inhaled around homeworkAnd breathed through seasonsAround chopping potatoes Since this house embraced fireLike a young […]

In contrast with shadows The shadows cannot find you now,Or pain to tease your soul,The earth has consummated you in death.The cold wind that hunted you,To cut you to the bone;Has now to turn back upon itself. I hope the lake retained its stillness?It did the last time I was there;When I ran with breaded […]